It was an interesting story from a poky little college town in southern Georgia: some students at Valdosta State University decided to hold a protest by walking on the American flag. The nature of their protest was not defined; but somehow they adopted walking on the flag as a huge way of getting attention for whatever protest they were having. No leaflets, no cue cards, no signs, nothing. They were not the most articulate of protesters, methinks.
Along comes a young woman, identified as a veteran, who snatched up the flag to rescue it from this sort of defilement. The campus police cometh; and try to take the flag away from the irate vet. She resisted, and they have to wrestle her down to the ground to de-flag her. Anyway, neither the protesters nor the campus cops file charges. Let bygones be bygones; but they cited her for criminal trespass, meaning don't come back to V.S.U. period! Kind of harsh.
The veteran in question was Michelle Manhart, formerly an Air Force training Staff Sergeant at Lackland AFB. Reading further in The Air Force Times, Staff Sergeant Manhart apparently left the Air Force back in 2006 because she had been demoted due to having posed for Playboy magazine! And that televised paragon of rectitude, Montel Williams, criticized her on television. Oh, don't have a cow, Montel!
I admit a lot of sympathy with her with this episode in Valdosta. The protesters were deliberately trying to set off a response of some kind. As for the campus cops, they could wear giant condoms for headgear!
The Valdosta story is not over. A large "Flags Over V.S.U." rally" attracted about 4,000 people to protest the actions of the protesters and the cops. The school canceled classes for a day.
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13 comments:
Why did they demote her? They should have assigned her to Air Force recruiting!
What a lady...I think I would like to get to know her a bit better. And those protesters are a bit loony tunes, I'd say. They wanted to get attention, and they did get it, but for what?
Talk about a crazy story!!
isn't it funny how things twist an turn for her?
Later reports from Valdosta were that one of the protesters brought a gun to the protest. Apparently they anticipated that there would be trouble beforehand by their provocative actions. Geesh!
Later reports from Valdosta were that one of the protesters brought a gun to the protest. Apparently they anticipated that there would be trouble beforehand by their provocative actions. Geesh!
I see the Air Force TImes showed one of her Playboy pictures with her naked holding the flag that was dragging the ground. I think Michelle needs to get her priorities straight.
That's wrapping herself in the flag! It was a bummer that they took away her hat.
Mike,, you have a good point.
The story just kept getting stranger.
Good reporting!
ALOHA from Honolulu,
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=
I want to hear the rest of THIS story...
You know, it's funny...I"m all about personal freedoms and rights, but I have a very unpopular opinion: I don't think it should be okay to deface the flag. And that makes me feel like some old grandpa yelling: "America! Love it or leave it!"
But I still feel that way. Too many people have died protecting this country and it just feels so wrong; like a slap in their face.
I told you I was a geezer.
There aren't a lot of countries where one could protest by walking on the national flag. Perhaps they could protest in one of those places to get some perspective.
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